• Evaluating the effect of different herbal enhancers on colonic absorption of mesalazine
  • Hossein Zarei,1,* Eskandar Moghimipour,2 Anayatollah salimi,3
    1. Pharmacy student, Department of pharmaceutics,school of pharmacy, Jundishapour university of medical sciences,Ahvaz, Iran
    2. Professor of pharmaceutics, Department of pharmaceutics,school of pharmacy, Jundishapour university of medical sciences,Ahvaz, Iran
    3. Professor of pharmaceutics, Department of pharmaceutics,school of pharmacy, Jundishapour university of medical sciences,Ahvaz, Iran


  • Introduction: Mesalazine (5-aminosalicylic acid; mesalamine), an anti-inflammatory agent, the active derivative of sulfasalazine, which is used in the treatment of mild to moderate active ulcerative colitis and controling inflammation by inhibiting cyclooxygenase and reducing prostaglandin production in the colon. The purpose of this study is to investigate the increase in colonic absorption of mesalazine by using the different herbal enhancers.
  • Methods: For the purpose of the effect of absorbing herbal additive first, the intestines were placed in contact with the absorbtion of additives such as eucalyptus, menthol, olive oil and oleic acid for 4 hours, and then, the drug passed through the treated colon. The effect of additive adsorption was investigated by calculating the permeability parameters by FT-IR technique.
  • Results: The results indicate that the absorption of all additives used increased the permeability of mesalazine to water but, among the absorption additives, menthol with Jss = 0.0949 ± 0.0001 and permeability percentage of 97.72% had the highest absorption. The results of FT-IR of the intestine pre-contacted with menthol indicate asymmetric C-H and C-H symmetric water shifts.
  • Conclusion: The results indicate that various mechanisms such as lipid liquefaction, lipid degradation as well as irreversible denaturation of intracellular proteins (derived from eucalyptus oil, menthol, oleic acid and olive) have the greatest effect on increasing drug penetration.
  • Keywords: Mesalazine, enhancer, gastrointestinal permeability, laboratory rats